Senbazuru
by Tusk Act IV
Summary: "Can you even count to one thousand, Yotsuba?"


**Disclaimer: I own neither the series nor the characters.**

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**1**

"And done!"

A girl with long flowing hair lifted a piece of colorful paper with two small hands. What was once a pristine square looked like a crumpled mess. The shape vaguely resembled a diamond but there were oddly bent parts sticking out.

Even if she had a guess on what it was, the bedridden woman next to the young girl still asked.

"And what is that, my dear?"

"Its a crane, mama! Look, look!" Yotsuba leaned forward in her seat to hold up the origami she had just finished in front of her mother. Sure, the wings were uneven and the head and tail weren't bending like the book had said it would, but it was definitely a paper crane.

Nakano Rena offered her daughter a warm smile. "I can see that. Although, cranes normally have legs, no?"

"That's true! But this is the one the book taught me how to make…I think." Yotsuba frowned as she brought the paper craft close to her eyes. It definitely didn't match the picture in the book. Her crane looked like it was barely holding itself together. "I wonder why it came out like this?"

"You just need practice, Yotsuba." Rena reached over to the sheets of paper laid over her bedside. "The secret to Origami is making sure your folds are precise and sharp."

With grace, the woman folded a piece of paper much like how Yotsuba did. Only her motions were more practiced than her daughter's earlier messy ones, folding and tucking with a quickness that held patience. She then held out her finished work to her daughter who took it with wide awe-struck eyes.

The differences between the two was like night and day. While one was a picturesque representation of a paper crane, the other looked to be a bad facsimile of one.

"Wow! You're amazing, mom!" exclaimed Yotsuba as she held each one on the palm of her hands.

"Quite. Now, can you tell me why you're doing such a thing here? Why not with the others? Maruo will scold you if you make a mess here."

"It's for you, mom!"

"For me?"

"Un! I read that if I fold one thousand cranes, you'd get better!" Yotsuba explained, eyes shining with innocence. "You've been here for a while now so I wanted to help you out!"

For a moment, her mother just stared back without saying a word. Her eyes held something within them that Yotsuba couldn't identify but it soon passed and was replaced with a warmth that was tired but familiar.

"Do your best, Yotsuba."

From her hospital bed, Rena lifted her hand and patted her fourth daughter's head. Yotsuba accepted the gesture, placing her own hands over her mother's own. It was much thinner than the girl remembered it to be.

"I will! I'll promise I'll finish all one thousand!"

Though she couldn't see her mother's face because of the hand on her head, Yotsuba knew the mother she loved was smiling down at her.

"I know you will, my dear. I'm know you will."

**100**

"Hey, whatcha doing?"

From her pile of crumpled papers, a girl stopped her folding to see a perfect reflection of herself if she was currently munching on a large meat bun.

"Itsuki! Where did you get that?"

Her sister shrugged and, instead of replying, plopped herself down next to Yotsuba. The floor of the room was covered in paper, some still unfolded and others crumpled. The most noticeable of them were the large pile of neatly folded paper cranes.

She asked again.

"Whacha doing?"

"I'm making paper cranes! I'm almost at one hundred of them, I think." Yotsuba showed the crane she had in mid-fold. She knew she had gone through more than a hundred pieces of paper by now as some gotten torn through her learning process of making decent looking ones.

Itsuki nodded, not saying anything else. She continued to silently bite into her meat bun as she watched Yotsuba finish her folding. When her sister finished, a new neatly folded paper crane existed between the two.

Smiling to herself, Yotsuba placed the finished crane with the others next to her. Curious, Itsuki asked.

"Why are you making so many?"

"I read that if I give one thousand paper cranes to a sick person, they'd get much better," said Yotsuba with pride in her voice.

"R-really?" Itsuki's eyes widened in wonder and hope. For the first time since she had entered her sister's room, she lowered the meat bun from her mouth.

"I read it in a book so it has to be true!"

"That's right!" Itsuki's gaze went down to her hands and the meat bun they were holding. She had been eating a lot more snacks lately since their mom had been admitted to the hospital. It helped her forget the bad feelings in her tummy.

It was the first time that month the youngest sister had a look of excitement in her eyes.

She put the food down and turned back to Yotsuba with resolute eyes and a set mouth.

"Then… then can I help?"

"Of course!" Yotsuba nodded, excitedly. "If we both work on it than, we're sure to get it to mom soon!"

"Yeah!" Wiping her hands on her dress, Itsuki took one of the unfolded pieces of paper. "So how do I make one?"

"I'll teach you! It's kind of hard but you'll get used to it!"

**250**

"…thirty-eight. Thirty-nine. Forty."

A girl watched her sister slide the beads atop the final paper crane into the string. Just like the instructions said, forty cranes were now held together by a single string. Miku held up the wave of green folded paper, cut the string loose from the spool and then handed it out to Yotsuba.

"Thanks, Miku!" Yotsuba cradled the string of cranes with both hands before placing it down next to a few others like it. "You're really the smartest among all of us!"

"It's just counting," dismissed Miku with a shake of her head. All around the sisters were paper cranes of different colors. There were so many at this point that Yotsuba had called her over to help with counting them. Apparently, she had gotten confused and stopped counting after the hundred eleventh one.

Miku looked down at the large pile of paper cranes in her lap. She held one up, admiring the paper animal then letting it fall back into the pile. In front of her, Yotsuba had already restarted her folding of even more origami. The middle quintuplet resumed her counting, as well.

She picked up the end of the string she had earlier cut and slid a bead into it before tying it back at the end of a large needle.

Making sure she didn't prick herself. Miku pierced the end of the needle through the center of the crane. She had to make sure not to crumple it as the folded paper slid across the needle and down into the string. It fell through easily until it stopped at the earlier bead.

"One."

Miku picked up another one and repeated the process with the bead falling firstnfollowed by the crane.

"Two."

Pick up. Pierce. Fall.

"Three."

Pick up. Pierce. Fall. Pick up. Pierce. Fall.

"Four. Five."

Pick up. Pierce. Fall. Pick up. Pierce. Fall. Pick up. Pierce. Fall.

"Six. Seven. Eight."

Pick up. Pie-

"Ow." The needle dropped on the floor with a small ring. Miku held up the tip of her finger, the small red dot on its tip growing outward into a crimson drop. A stinging sensation buzzed into the back of her mind but all Miku could think about was the sight of her fingertip and the blood dripping from it.

"Miku!" Yotsuba yelled as she scrambled over to her still sister. "Are you okay?"

"It's fine." Miku's reply was a simple shake of her head before placing the finger in her mouth. A rusty taste tipped her tongue.

Yotsuba watched worried, her hands hovering over her sister's body. "We should get you a bandage or wash it or something!"

Miku removed her finger from her mouth. It still stung a little but it wasn't bleeding anymore.

"I'm okay, Yotsuba. I just pricked it for a moment."

"You should still rest. This is my fault for asking you to-."

"Ne, Yotsuba." Miku met her sister's gaze. "Did you know they put a needle in Mom?"

"…eh?"

"Yeah, I saw it. It's always stuck in her arm." Miku's words seemed to have frozen her sister's body. All earlier energy in the room was now gone. "Dad says it feeds her food through the needle."

"But…can't she just eat it normally?"

"Maybe…she can't anymore."

If Miku was going to say anything else, she didn't as silence entered between the two sisters. One looked down to the floor, the colorful flock of paper cranes providing no solace while the other just stood there quiet.

Eventually, one of them spoke up.

"She'll be okay."

There was no reply.

**500**

"Yotsuba?"

A girl lifted her head, eyes bleary and half-lidded to see the worried look of her sister. She blinked, fighting back the sleepiness that still tried to claim her. A trail of drool flowed from her mouth down to the arms she had laid her head on.

"I-Ichika? What are you doing here?"

"I was feeling thirsty. I should be asking you the same thing." She had just come downstairs and had found Yotsuba asleep on the dining room table. Ichika looked over her "younger" sister. Surrounding the sleeping quintuplet was a kaleidoscope of paper cranes. Some were on the table and others were littered all over the floor.

She slowly approached Yotsuba from the side, making sure not to step on any of the sprawled origami on the floor.

"Yotsuba, you should get some rest. I know that things haven't been the best recently…" That was an understatement and Ichika knew it. "…but that doesn't mean you shouldn't rest. Just how long have you been doing this?"

"I'm not sure," admitted Yotsuba with an unsure smile. She smoothed out the piece of paper beneath her arms. "At some point, my body starts moving on its own and I my brain stops. I stop thinking about things I don't want to."

Ichika chewed her lower lip. Normally, she'd leave things be. It's not like she, herself, didn't understand where Yotsuba was coming from. While she was thirsty, the eldest quintuplet had only really come down because she hadn't been able to fall into sleep. At some point, just lying on her bed and hearing her other sisters' whimpering and sobbing nearby was just too much for her.

She had needed some air.

She didn't need whatever this was.

"Yotsuba just…let's go back okay? C'mon, I'll help you into your onesie."

"But Ichika-"

"No buts!" She actually grabbed Yotsuba by the wrist, drawing a pained yelp from the sleepy girl. She turned back at the sound only to see the hand at the end of the wrist she was holding.

Cuts.

What should have been smooth skin was covered with cuts, both fresh and faded. Tiny lines all etched over thin fingers and her palm. Paper cuts that were too shallow to breach the skin yet no doubt still hurt. Some were even red on the verge of bleeding. The fingers twitched unconsciously in pain. Ichika knew, if she'd check, she'd find the same injuries on the other.

These were not the hands of a girl her age.

They shouldn't be the hands of any girl.

"…Yotsuba."

"They don't hurt!" Yotsuba shook her head but Ichika could recognize the strain in her sister's voice. "Really! Like I said, after some point, I stopped feeling anything. I…I need to finish this, Ichika! I'm definitely going to deliver all of it to Mom!"

"Then she'll be healthy again!" went unsaid.

Ichika let go of the wrist, staring at her sister as her arm fell numbly to her side. Something hot threatened to fall from her eyes but she didn't know why. No, she knew why she just didn't know who they would be for.

Yotsuba?

Her mother?

Herself?

Besides, what would crying do at this point?

"…C'mon. Let's sleep."

Without another word, Ichika turned to head back to their room, never looking back. She wasn't sure if she was happy that footsteps followed her but a small weight did lift from her heart.

When they got back to bed, Ichika finally found sleep but it didn't make her feel any less tired the morning after.

**750 **

"Stop it."

"Eh?"

"I said STOP IT!" With a yell that resounded across the room, Nino slammed her hand down on the table. The stacks of paper that had laid on the table collapsed from the impact, falling all over the floor.

"Nino." Ichika spoke up, a warning in her voice, but Nino didn't shift her heated gaze.

Not that it mattered as the only thing that looked to be on Yotsuba's mind were the displaced papers. Ignoring anything else, she listlessly got on her knees and started picking them up with a bowed head.

"Nino. Calm down." Ichika placed a hand on her sister's shoulder which was promptly slapped off by the quint in question. She had finally taken her eyes off Yotsuba although it may just have been from Yotsuba was ignoring her.

"How can I keep calm, Ichika?!" Nino's voice was high as she shrieked. Fat tears were already threatening to drop from the corners of her eyes. "How can she keep doing this…this…"

Grinding her teeth together, Nino turned to grab a paper crane from the table. She ripped it in two than four than eight than when it was too small, she threw the remains on the floor.

"Something like this won't cure, Mama! This stupid charm won't help her!" She wiped her eyes on her bare arm yet her sight still remained blurry from the tears. "She keeps doing it like it will! It won't! Nothing will! It's just cruel to everyone to keep us hoping!"

Ichika couldn't reply, her lip wobbling from Nino's words.

From the corner of the room Miku briefly glanced at them but then went back to comforting the silent and morose Itsuki who had been sitting quietly by the corner the whole time. Itsuki's arms hugged her knees close to her chest and her eyes lacked the usual light in them. Miku tried rubbing her back but the girl remained unresponsive.

Nino stomped her foot down angrily, tears shedding from her fierce glaring eyes.

"Tell her to stop!"

"I…"

"Tell her! Tell her or so help me I'll tear each and every single one of them! "

"I promised…!"

The two older sisters turned to Yotsuba who was still kneeling on the floor. Her hands trembled much like her voice did as she held a piece of red paper between them. She didn't look at her sisters, her blue eyes instead glaring at the paper before her.

Yotsuba yelled once more.

"I promised Mom I'd finish! One thousand cranes! I promised!"

"You-!" For a moment, it looked like Nino was about to get physical as her anger looked to have reached its critical point but instead, she hotly turned away to leave the room, slamming the door behind her.

"Nino, wait!" Ichika moved to follow her sister but not before sending a worried glance to Yotsuba. After watching her unmoving form for a moment, Ichika turned away and left the room, as well.

Yotsuba held the paper in her hands with an iron grip. If she wasn't careful, it would tear from how shaky her hands were getting.

"Just a little more. Just a little more. Just a little more."

**999**

"Yotsuba-kun. You were here, all along."

A long girl stood in front of an empty hospital bed. From behind, Maruo noticed a crumpled piece of paper held tightly in her right fist. He walked from the doorway to move to her side. Even from back there, he could hear her sniffling.

He took a glance down to a girl he considered his daughter. It was a face he had already seen four times over, tearstricken and full of grief. By her feet, he noticed a bundle of what looked to be paper cranes. They were all a rainbow of colors from yellow to pink to blue to green to red.

Forty rows of twenty-five cranes to make a thousand.

A thousand for a wish.

As a doctor, it wasn't the first time he had seen such a thing. In fact, it was quite common to see a them hung around a patient's room. He was even the one who had bought the girl the set when she had showed interest in making one.

Maruo was familiar enough with the charm to know that the number of cranes she had brought wasn't enough. At times like these, whether it was one or one thousand or one million, they'd never be enough.

"Come, your sisters are waiting."

The girl didn't move, continuing to stare at the empty bed.

"Yotsuba-kun."

Maruo glanced down at his daughter but then looked back up with a small exhale of breath. He took in the empty sight of the bed like she did and, finally, he too saw nothing, as well.

Neither spoke.

The room was soon empty once more.

**1001**

"And done!"

A girl with long flowing hair lifted a piece of colorful paper with two small hands. What was once a pristine square looked was now a piece of art, a perfectly folded paper crane. The folds were sharp. The shape was perfect, and she could make the wings flap by moving the head and tail.

Even if she knew what it was, the bedridden woman next to the young girl still asked.

"Still making cranes, Mutsumi?"

"Yup! It's more out of habit than anything thse days."

Yotsuba took the crane from her daughter's hands, a nostalgic smile on her face. She held the crane up to her face, admiring the paper craft.

"You're already better than I was when I was at your age." Yotsuba hummed as she placed the crane back by her bedside.

"Of course! I had dad to help me after all!"

"That's right. Your dad is quite amazing at teaching."

Yotsuba turned her gaze to the space above her daughter. There hanging by the wall was a finished senbazuru, a thousand colored cranes that together looked like a sea of rainbow. It was much better looking than the one she had presented her husband all those years ago. The colors were consistent and made a beautiful rainbow pattern that lit up when the light passed through it.

Just by looking at it, she could feel her strength returning.

"Ah! But I did most of the work there! Dad just helped with tying it all up!" Mutsumi must have noticed her gaze as she soon spoke up. "That was all me, Mom!"

Her daughter sat up preening, clearly presenting her head for a good patting. Yotsuba obliged even though her father had always said they already spoiled her too much.

"And who was the one who bought the senbazuru set in the first place?"

Speaking of the father…

"Ah, Dad! Is it okay already?" Ignoring him, Mutsumi got up from her seat to approach him, clealry excited hearing that her father was back.

"Yeah, she's fine." Fuutarou's smile was tired but genuine as he approached them with a bundle of cloth in his arms "Do you want to hold her?"

"Can I?"

"Here. But be careful! Support her head gently but tightly! And make sure not to drop her… You know what, maybe it's too soon."

"Ah! Daddy's being unfair! Give me! Give me!"

From her bedside, Yotsuba smiled watching her husband try to play keep away with her daughter. Eventually, as he always did, he gave up and allowed Mutsumi to hold her new baby sister.

The newborn stared up at Mutsumi blinking once before gurgling happily. The now older sister's eyes widened in wonder as her new imouto cooed at her.

Mutsumi turned to her tired mother.

"Do you have a name already, mom?"

"Hmmm. How about...Rena?"

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**AN:****. And from smut, we go back to character pieces. I noticed Yotsuba's love for cranes and so I went to the logical conclusion that its based on tragedy like everything in her life.**

**This turned out longer than expected (I was shooting for 1K words lol). I'll admit I've never had the tragic experience of a relative slowly dying so I don't think I did it justice. This fic doesn't feel sad enough for me but I tried my best.**

**Also, the first kanji of Rena's name means zero which us why the 999 section has them lookong at nothing and empty spaces.**

**I was tempted to have a section dedicated to her learning about them from a certain young lad she met on a field trip but wasn't sure about the timing plus I wanted the first part to really be only on her family.**


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